Candy maker Clarence Crane, wanting to branch out from chocolates, saw a pill machine being used to make round pills in 1912. Since most available mint candies at the time were square, round mints were a novelty, and a hole could be punched in the middle to make them even more different-looking. The name came from the resemblance of the candies to the doughnut-shaped life preservers used on ships when a person had fallen overboard.